12 hours Ago By Jessica Belzycki
In her 50 years as a midwife, Helen Thornton has helped people through the best and worst moments in their lives. Login or signup to continue reading "It can be very, very happy but then you have periods of intense sadness for the families that lose babies," she said. The almost retired 75-year-old began as a nurse before moving to the Calvary Mater Hospital in 1971 as a midwife, then Maitland Public Hospital and the old Christo Road Private Hospital and finally, working at the Newcastle Private Hospital.
After leaving hospitals in 2021, she worked mainly in doctor's offices in antenatal care. While working at Newcastle Private, Ms Thorton organised bereavement keepsakes such as collecting babies' footprints. "It's much better than when I first started, quite often ladies didn't see their babies if they died, so things have really changed in the last 50 years," she said.
But while her career had seen the lowest of lows, she felt it was still the best job in the world. "Just seeing a birth, a baby born into their mother's arm, the wonder on their faces and their partner's, and you think, 'oh, it's a miracle'," she said. With International Day of the Midwife on Monday, May 5, Ms Thornton said midwives needed more recognition for the work they do.
"People are always going to have babies, and people need them to help them birth," she said. When she first started in healthcare, there was no choice for how or where women gave birth. "Some women are scared of birth, some women have had horrible things like sexual assault.
Women now have choices, and they need those choices," she said. Ms Thorton said there were different models of care today, such as home births with a registered midwife, midwifery care from pregnancy through to postnatal and care through private obstetricians. "50 years ago you just went into a hospital and had a baby," she said.
While much had changed for the better over the years, staffing shortages continued to worsen over the last ten years, she said. "I think midwives are leaving the profession because they don't feel that they're getting enough out of it or they're giving women the care they deserve," she said. "That used to really upset me," she said.
She felt that the biggest cause of staffing shortages was the lack of funds in hospital budgets. NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association president O'Bray Smith said she knew of a unit where there were 14 women to one midwife on the post-natal ward compared to the preferred ratio of one to three. "It is soul-crushing, you wouldn't want to stay in work where you can see that women and newborns aren't getting safe care," she said.
She said they were also seeing the destruction of maternity services, such as in Muswellbrook and Gosford, largely due to staffing issues. "Many of our nurses and midwives can't afford to live in the communities that they look after, some of our members are living in cars," she said. For the past year, the union has been campaigning for a 15 per cent pay increase in public hospitals, with the deal before the Industrial Relations Commission currently.
Workers at Newcastle Private Hospital held a 26-hour strike in March for a pay rise and better working conditions. "Don't get me wrong, I miss midwifery, and I loved every single day of being a midwife, but I pay for it," Ms O'Bray said. "I pay for the fact that I couldn't get a living wage, that I couldn't live in Sydney comfortably.
" Midwives and nurses were continuously putting others ahead of themselves, and this deserved to be celebrated, Ms Smith said. Executive director of nursing and midwifery for Hunter New England Local Health District Elizabeth Grist said they were the "backbone" of the health service. "They bring life into the world, they are with people at the end of their life and all those moments in between," she said.
"There wouldn't be a health service if it wasn't for nurses and midwives." Ms Grist said nurses and midwives continued to show immense strength and resilience during challenging and uncertain times. "I think today and every single day we celebrate their compassion and their extraordinary commitment to the care they give," she said.
"I'd like to see nurses and midwives look after themselves." Ms Smith agreed that there was a significant emotional toll on workers in the medical field, and she'd want to see more support for midwives grappling with birth trauma. As Ms Thornton's long career drew to a close, she felt fortunate to have worked with women and families across the region.
"Sometimes people will tap me on the shoulder and say, 'oh, Helen, you won't remember me but you delivered my baby'," she said. "There's been some families that I've delivered all their babies, and that's an honour. Journalist at the Newcastle Herald.
Email me at [email protected].
au Journalist at the Newcastle Herald. Email me at jessica.belzycki@austcommunitymedia.
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